CHAPTER VII. 



AT ALDKIDGE S MISS TUKNOVER. 



Throughout the whole district hunted b}' the Duke of 

 Haughtj'shire eveiyone seemed talking only of the coming 

 Hunt Ball — a gay rfmiioii, which was to take place at the 

 end of the month, and to which the fair sex in especial were 

 keenly looking forward. I say in especial, because it is to be 

 presumed that the younger members of the masculine gender 

 were also, in their way, anticipating some of its delights. 

 But whether it is that women know they look their best, 

 as men assuredly appear at their worst, when dancing, or 

 from some other cause, certain it is that at the end of this 

 nineteenth century the majority of women 'gallop generously,' 

 whilst men begin to jib and look around them for a chance 

 of 'cutting it,' at the threat of a dance invitation card. Give 

 a man a dinner and he is quite at home ; menace him with 

 a dance and you can't ' whip him straight up a passage,' to 

 use the late Sir Kobert Peel's expression. 



Now the Hunt Ball was a very ' Count}' ' affair in 

 Haughtyshire — not one of those ' omnium gatherums ' which 

 obtain in some hunts we could all put a name to if we 

 wished. The Duke himself, with an imposing house-party, 

 was always present — unlike many of the high and mighty of 

 the land, who put their names down on lists of patrons, etc.. 



